Output from eurozone factories fell by 0.8% in April, according to the latest official figures from EU body Eurostat.
The drop in industrial production was not as bad as feared, and March's figure was revised up to a 0.1% fall. But the fall in output is a sign of slower economic activity. Eurozone GDP stagnated in the first quarter of the year and shrank at the end of 2011.
On Wednesday, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti again called for a plan to boost EU growth. Jonathan Loynes of Capital Economics said that while the latest industrial production figures were not as bad as expected, the data was still a bad sign.
"April's industrial production figures provide an early indication that the eurozone's narrow escape from technical recession in Q1 is unlikely to last very long," he said.
German powerhouse
A German economic think tank, the RWI Institute, raised its growth forecast for the euro area's biggest economy. It now expects German wealth to expand 1.1% this year, compared with an earlier estimate of 1%.
The country's 0.5% growth in the first three months of the year offset recessions in Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and peripheral states such as Portugal and Spain to give the eurozone a GDP growth rate of zero in the first quarter.
Austria, Belgium, Finland, Estonia and Slovakia also reported economic growth for the start of 2012 but, as the world's fourth-biggest economy, Germany dwarfs most of its eurozone neighbours.
Generating economic wealth across the eurozone is seen as essential for governments trying to pay off colossal debts.
Cheaper fuel
Separate figures showed that inflation eased in the eurozone's biggest economies during May as retailers cut prices. In Germany, consumer prices rose 2.2% compared with a year earlier, based on the European Central Bank's favoured HICP measure.
That was slightly slower than the 2.1% annual rate registered in April. Cheaper fuel fed through into lower transport costs for households and firms in France, Germany and Italy.
French consumer prices were up 2.3% from last May, down from April's 2.4% annual rise. Italian inflation remained stubbornly high at 3.5%, but that was still down from 3.7% in April.
bbc.co.uk
The drop in industrial production was not as bad as feared, and March's figure was revised up to a 0.1% fall. But the fall in output is a sign of slower economic activity. Eurozone GDP stagnated in the first quarter of the year and shrank at the end of 2011.
On Wednesday, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti again called for a plan to boost EU growth. Jonathan Loynes of Capital Economics said that while the latest industrial production figures were not as bad as expected, the data was still a bad sign.
"April's industrial production figures provide an early indication that the eurozone's narrow escape from technical recession in Q1 is unlikely to last very long," he said.
German powerhouse
A German economic think tank, the RWI Institute, raised its growth forecast for the euro area's biggest economy. It now expects German wealth to expand 1.1% this year, compared with an earlier estimate of 1%.
The country's 0.5% growth in the first three months of the year offset recessions in Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and peripheral states such as Portugal and Spain to give the eurozone a GDP growth rate of zero in the first quarter.
Austria, Belgium, Finland, Estonia and Slovakia also reported economic growth for the start of 2012 but, as the world's fourth-biggest economy, Germany dwarfs most of its eurozone neighbours.
Generating economic wealth across the eurozone is seen as essential for governments trying to pay off colossal debts.
Cheaper fuel
Separate figures showed that inflation eased in the eurozone's biggest economies during May as retailers cut prices. In Germany, consumer prices rose 2.2% compared with a year earlier, based on the European Central Bank's favoured HICP measure.
That was slightly slower than the 2.1% annual rate registered in April. Cheaper fuel fed through into lower transport costs for households and firms in France, Germany and Italy.
French consumer prices were up 2.3% from last May, down from April's 2.4% annual rise. Italian inflation remained stubbornly high at 3.5%, but that was still down from 3.7% in April.
bbc.co.uk
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